In recent years, a trend towards electronic trading has become well-established, causing one major exchange after another to replace or at least supplement the traditional open outcry, where a trade is done face to face, with automated, electronic systems which automatically match bids and offers. While the motivation behind using electronic trading may vary from market to market, greater efficiency and volume are some of the considerations.
In particular, subscribing traders are connected to an exchange's electronic trading platform by way of a communication link and through an application program interface to facilitate real-time electronic messaging between themselves and the exchange. The electronic messaging includes market information that is sent from the electronic market to the traders. Market information commonly includes information regarding the inside market and market depth. The inside market is the lowest sell price in the market and the highest buy price in the market at a particular point in time. Market depth refers to quantities available at the inside market and may also refer to quantities available at other prices away from the inside market. The quantity available at a given price level is usually provided by the host exchange in aggregate sums. In other words, a host exchange usually provides the total buy or the total sell quantity available in the market at a particular price level in its data feed. The extent of the market depth available to a trader usually depends on the host exchange. For instance, some host exchanges provide market depth for all or many price levels, while some provide only quantities associated with the inside market, and others may provide no market depth at all.
Additionally, the host exchange can offer other types of market information such as the last traded price (“LTP”), or the last traded quantity (“LTQ”).
Just as with an open-outcry exchange, an electronic exchange can list any number of tradable objects. Often times, traders will simultaneously trade more than one tradable object, and they may simultaneously trade tradable objects that are listed at more than one exchange. Ordinarily, each tradable object has its own separate stream of market information. Therefore, in these instances, the traders will generally receive more than one stream of market information such that each stream of market information attempts to characterize a given tradable object.
Once the traders receive market information, the market information may be displayed to them on their trading screens. Upon viewing the information, traders may take certain actions including the actions of sending buy or sell orders to the electronic market, adjusting existing orders, deleting orders, or otherwise managing orders. In general, traders may use trading screens to enter orders into the market, as well as to obtain and view market information. Traders may also use software tools on their client devices to automate these and additional actions.
Generally, when a trader submits an order to a host exchange, the host checks the conditions associated with the order, for example, price and quantity, and prioritizes the order with other orders at the same price. When the order conditions are satisfied, a trade occurs and trade information is then relayed in some fashion to one or more client devices so that the traders can have access to the most current market information.
To profit in today's rapidly moving markets, traders must be able to react more quickly and assimilate enormous amounts of data. For example, before making any trades, a trader may have to quickly assimilate and analyze many different types of data, such as market data, world news, or business news. Additionally, every week, different departments of the U.S. government, professional organizations, and academic institutions issue dozens of economic statistics and indicators. Such reports often serve as useful tools that allow one to assess the overall strength and the likely direction of the economy. These indicators can also have a significant impact on the markets, and can move the markets immensely on any given day. Therefore, many traders watch economic report announcements very closely, and many of them try to take advantage of the quick market changes that are caused by the announcements of some numbers, while others try to limit their losses to the possible minimum by attempting to delete any of their pending orders, for example.
Thus, it is desirable for electronic trading applications to offer tools that can assist traders in trading in an electronic trading environment, help them in making profitable trades in a speedy and accurate manner, while allowing the traders to effectively monitor and use the economic reports as well as other news announcements to their advantage.